U.S. Scholar Claims “heber” Not “abel” Was Name of Cain’s Brother

A Biblical scholar has suggested that the brother murdered by Cain was really named not Abel but Heuer, source of the name of the City of Heber or the Hebrews.

Dr. Rolland E. Wolfe, professor of Western Reserve University, in advancing this revision of Biblical text, said the name Abel was an error in translation. In a paper read before the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis meeting of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Wolfe said that the identifying mark on the Hebrew word, which led to its being translated as Abel, was only a blemish on the original manuscript.

He said that translated as Heber, the name of Cain’s brother would conform more logically to Hebron, the city of Heber.